Sneak Peek

So it's night time and the lights are on and the kids are in bed but moaning about wanting to stay up and so I'm taking (bad) photos....

Take a look if you will......none of it is pretty - it's all for the adventurous soul.......

Afganistan stampings, eletra (bug wings) and tribal fringe bits on Noibium ear-wires (I LOVE Noibium ear-wires - after my second child was born I couldn't wear any of my earrings but Noibium has changed all of that) - and I'll warn you now, I shall be using  lot of my tribal belly dance bits and bobs in the upcoming jewellery selection......

Afghanistan stampings, light metal circles, kyanite shards and steel wire - all very light-weight and all on noibium wires - from now on all earrings are on noibium wires and if they're on sterling silver wires I'll tell ya....

Brass stampings, hammered out, brass wires (sorry - forgot about these ones) and tribal bits and bobs, turquoise stones and quartz crystals held in brass bell bead caps.....

I love these ones most - twisty vintage pearls, inside light-weight brass rings, decorated with brass religious medals and belly dance bits, super small antique keys and faceted vintage beads.....noibium wires like I said before....

I adore this necklace - it has a massive inverted rhinestone crescent, held with antique patinated tin, accented with a vintage thingy (ok, I have no other word for it!) and a large amethyst point wound in annealed steel wire.  It is held as a necklace by vintage lace, wound with more steel and an extender chain finished with a carnelian bead.  

I have a whole heap of these coming up - amulet necklaces - little pouches of vintage fabric where you can secrete something precious to you and only you.....this one is made of vintage sari fabric and is embellished with a blue oyster shard, a tribal belly dance doo dad, kyanite teeth and golden and pink sari decos.  All held with plaited blue silk, antique brass chain and a French religious medal.....

All metal has been oxidised - Indian metal work, altered agates, kyanite shards, metal bits, religious medals and niobium ear-wires......

I love this one - vintage tin outer, silver and amber earring as a rivet, vintage book pages, agate beads, brass chain and silk length wrapped with glistening thread.  Turquoise and tribal bits for deco on the bottom...... absolutely one of a kind......

Gypsy Tribal bangle stacks (tutorial courtesy of Fanciful Devices) and the above ones are in white....

These ones are in pink.......

These are in green......

Apparently I made water-melon tourmaline bangles and so I am happy.

Give me 48 hours and all of this and more will be up in my Etsy shop.....if you want anything before then be quick and we can negotiate a price.....xx

Embroidered Necklace

So this week, despite it being half-term I got something new started.  I've been thinking about making a necklace of scrips and scraps for some time now, and it's one of those things on my virtual list that I always manage to forget about it.  So here it is, unfinished as yet, but it's proof of a couple of busy evenings at least.

There's lots more to do - more beads to add, maybe a few feathers here and there and then once I'm happy with it I'll need to back it and add ties.  And as I've got lots of different scraps of fabric in lots of colours I can forsee that I'll be playing around with a few of these before long.  I can't wait to get the children settled in bed so that I can have another play but as it's the holidays that might prove a little tricky.....

Two of the flowers I've added were pre-made, but the others (which do look a little indistinct at the moment) were made by gently melting the edges of organza with a candle flame.  If you're interested in making some of your own flame kissed flowers plus some other ideas for making you own here are two great blogs with lots of tutorials, Little Birdie Secrets and Skip To My Lou.

And as if that wasn't enough make sure to skip over to Handmade Monday and check out what everyone has been up to this week.  Have a great week all!

Crystal Headdresses #2

So here's some of what I made at the weekend - just simple band headdresses from chandelier beads - the time consuming bit was making sure all the links were in the same direction and bending the wire in so that the beads won't come apart -plus ensuring there are no "snaggy" bits to get caught on hair.

There are some more of these to come, with more elaborate drapes...

And whilst I was in a slightly Medieval mood I added some beads and drops to some pendant necklaces I made this weekend too.

Crystal Headdresses

I have a huge bag of old chandelier crystals so today I am having a go at making gorgeous crystal headdresses.  My fingers are a little....ragged shall we say from wiring them together, but sometimes my pain is your beauty!
Obviously the next task will be to photograph them and do them justice, but for now I'll just keep on making and we'll see what happens.

Necklaces and things that go deeper.......

So.  In my huge collection of stuff I have beads, bead wires, spacers, threads and all of the paraphenalia associated with jewelery making.  And every so often I am inspired to make something from this ever growing stash.  Here's a couple of pics of the stash...

So in the world of jewelery what is still really hot at the moment are necklaces made up of slightly incongruent elements.  The colours integrate but the necklace isn't symmetrical.  This is harder than it sounds to recreate properly and I strive to make something beautiful each time I create a wearable item.

I was too late in taking some proper pics this evening as the children were enjoying playing in the garden and with a river at the end of the garden that takes some supervising believe me.

But here are the quick pics of what I've done today:

 
When I was at school I wanted to go to art college and fully explore the artistic side of myself that I knew existed.  My parents, being more pragmatic, wanted something else for me and so I pursued a career working with people, that to their credit has stood me in good stead.

Now I get to pursue both of these avenues and that makes me very happy.